This invention relates generally to hand-held vacuum cleaners capable of picking up both wet and dry debris, and in particular, to vacuum cleaners of the type having a squeegee for maintaining the performance of the cleaner during wet cleanup and for enabling the design of other components of the cleaning unit to be optimized for dry cleanup.
Many homes are presently equipped with hand-held vacuum cleaners capable of picking up both wet and dry debris. Heretofore, designers of such vacuum cleaners have been forced to accept compromised performance in cleaning either type of debris to make the cleaner capable of picking up both types of debris. For example, wet debris, since it is relatively heavier than dry debris, requires the cleaner to produce a relatively greater vacuum to achieve desired cleaning performance.
To improve the wet pick-up performance of the cleaner, the diameter of the cleaner's inlet nozzle has been reduced and a squeegee has been inserted into the intake nozzle to clean wet debris. The reduced diameter size of the inlet nozzle has limited dry pickup performance of the cleaner with respect to large particles.
Some hand-held vacuum cleaners capable of either wet or dry pickup, also have a tendency to drip after the cleaner has been turned off and wet debris has been collected in the cleaner's canister. Such dripping can create user dissatisfaction.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to improve the wet and dry performance of hand-held vacuum cleaners.